Like a bad haircut, the blowback from the Wayne Bryant trial just doesn't stop. It isn't Minority Leader DeCroce's talk about being threatened by Codey that makes me write this - I'm sure more than one threat has been issued and received by both sides of that relationship over the years. It's a little nugget tucked down at the bottom of the article.

[DeCroce] said he was also offended by documents among those released Friday that show Codey's staff had suggested awarding Christmas tree money to DeCroce's district as a means of co-opting and keeping him silent after Codey became governor.

The last consideration that should ever be brought up in determining state spending is how to shut up an opponent. It doesn't matter if their criticism is well-founded or not. You just don't throw around public money to shut someone up.

Six months ago, no one would have believed that Dick Codey would do such things. Codey had a reputation as a straight-shooter who could be trusted. That image is tarnished - badly. The idea that Dick Codey might have been the ringmaster in the Corruption Circus is growing more solid with each passing revelation.

It isn't clear from the article if Codey listened to his staff's advice and tried to buy-off DeCroce. DeCroce certainly thinks the offer was made and refused. Codey insists the offer was never made. It is impossible to determine what verbal offers might have been implied or even stated outright.

But the paper trail is there. The suggestions were made. Those suggestions are enough to do two things. First, immediately fire whoever made them. They are inherently unfit for office. Second, empanel a special investigator to see how far that trail goes.

I believe that any such investigation needs to happen with Dick Codey no longer holding the strings of power in Trenton. He needs to resign in order for any such investigation to be free of influence. If he won't do so; then he simply exposes himself as nothing more than a two-bit politician hiding behind his office door.